In recent years, technological advances have made it possible to reduce radio receivers and tape decks to compact sizes suitable for installation in automobile dashboards. Combination in-dash radio receivers and either cartridge or cassette tape players have become increasingly popular. In many top of the line automobile models, these combination radio-tape decks are now included as standard equipment. For most other passenger cars, these devices are available as factory-installed optional extras; or else they can be purchased from other audio manufacturers and installed by the owner or by an audio specialty shop.
These combination radio-tape decks typically permit a driver or a passenger while travelling in the car to quickly and easily switch between AM and FM radio reception as well as between the radio reception mode and playing a pre-recorded cartridge or cassette on the tape player. Often it would also be desirable, however, for the driver or passenger to also be able to directly record news, music or other radio transmissions on a blank cartridge or cassette. For many years, the technology has been available for directly coupling a radio receiver to a tape recorder, and numerous portable models of such combination devices are on the market. Noone, however, has devised an adaptation of these radio-tape recorders-tape players suitable for in-dash installation in an automobile or similar passenger vehicle.
For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,916,122; 4,109,115; and 4,396,941 all show combination radio receivers, tape recorders and tape players. Each of these patents is directed to a compact and portable combination device which permits the user to choose between AM and FM radio reception, or playing a pre-recorded cartridge or cassette. In addition, the user can elect the use the device to record AM or FM radio transmissions directly onto a blank cartridge or cassette. The latter mode permits the user to hear the radio transmission, if he so desires, simultaneously with recording that transmission.
None of these devices, however, is suitable for in-dash installation in an automobile. Although these devices are compact enough to be easily portable, they are still too large for an automobile dashboard. The controls, the frequency indicators and the cartridge/cassette chambers for each of the devices are located on at least two if not on three faces of the device, which would render at least some of the controls or the indicators or the chambers inaccessible after installation in an automobile dashboard. The antennas attached to these prior art devices would protrude so as to create an interference as well as a hazard to the driver or passenger of an automobile; and, in any event, these autennas would not provide adequate reception for purposes of quality recording inside an automobile.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,149,043 and 4,388,712 do show radio receivers specially adapted for in-dash mounting in the dashboard of an automobile. In both of these patents, the radio receivers are combined with tape decks, as discussed above, so that a driver or passenger travelling in a car can choose between listening to the radio or playing a pre-recorded cartridge or cassette. Each of these patents refers to the tape portion of the device as a "tape recorder."
A closer inspection of these patents shows, however, that no provision is made in either one for using the device to record radio transmissions. Indeed, as the introductory portion of U.S. Pat. No. 4,149,043 notes, in conventional automobile radio/tape player systems it would be impossible to record radio transmissions because of the "selective operations" design of these systems. Namely, in these systems, a power source is connected to the radio with a moveable contact switch such that when a cassette is inserted into a slot on the tape player, the switch is changed over to supply power to the tape player instead of to the radio. When a push-button control is used to eject the cassette from the tape player, the moveable switch is moved back into its original position thus supplying power to the radio but not to the tape player. There is, accordingly, no way that these conventional systems can be used to record radio transmissions: when the radio is on, the tape player is off and vice versa.
The invention of U.S. Pat. No. 4,149,043 does not remedy this deficiency. The improvement which is the subject of this patent consists of a modification in the conventional systems such that a driver can switch from the radio mode to the tape player mode and back without having to alternately insert and eject a cassette or cartridge. The device described in the '043 patent utilizes a movable switch connected to the radio and to a temporary stopping mechanism in the tape player. Through one simple control, for example a lever or push/button, the driver can disconnect the radio and engage the tape player so as to play a pre-recorded cassette or cartridge previously inserted into the tape player. Using the same control, the driver can switch the power back to the radio thereby stopping the tape player, and the cassette or cartridge in play, without ejecting the cassette or cartridge. While this device may greatly facilitate switching between the radio and tape player modes, there is still no provision for simultaneously supplying power to both the radio and the tape player so as to permit the recording of radio transmissions.
The disclosures of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,916,122; 4,109,115; 4,149,043; 4,388,712; and 4,396,941, as discussed above, are incorporated herein by reference.